Acrostic Poetry

Type: Structure, other requirement

Description: The acrostic is a special requirement poem. The first letter of each line spells out a word, name or phrase.

Schematic:   L1xxx…
                    L2xxx…
                    L3xxx… and so on

Line Length: There is no standard line length.

Poem Length: As long as the word, phrase or message.

Examples:

An Acrostic
by Edgar Allan Poe

Elizabeth it is in vain you say
"Love not" — thou sayest it in so sweet a way:
In vain those words from thee or L.E.L.
Zantippe's talents had enforced so well:
Ah! if that language from thy heart arise,
Breath it less gently forth — and veil thine eyes.
Endymion, recollect, when Luna tried
To cure his love — was cured of all beside —
His follie — pride — and passion — for he died.


Fire and Pride
 by Jem Farmer

Fiercely won in humility,
Independence of conceptual thought,
Remains the writer’s ambition
Evoked by words drifting to line and verse.

Ambiguous acts of governments
Nurtured contempt and fear of the quill
Demands for freedom lie silenced.

Personal battles fought with the pen
Rights wrestled from censors,
Inventive imaginations born in free creativity
Deviant poets voices will be heard
Evolving in openness to reveal artistic flow


© Jem Farmer 2008, all rights reserved.